Learning Rhythm

To begin my teaching, I decided to introduce the students to the concept of rhythm, so we could later connect that to the syllables of words that fit into the rhythm. 

We started by learning the song "Bee Bee Bumblebee" by playing the singing game. While standing in a circle, students helped me sing the song as I spun around. At the end of the song, whichever students I was pointing at were "out." Their job was to sit down and tap the rhythm of the song on their laps as we continued the game. I pre-taught them the difference between beat and rhythm. I started by modeling the beat and talking about how it was steady. For rhythm, I told them to tap all of the notes in the song and modeled what that looked and sounded like. Because of this, students were able to tap most of the rhythm correctly during the game, although we stopped and practiced a few different times. 

The students were very engaged in this game and loved waiting to see who would "get out" and who would "win" at the very end. This lesson provided the foundation for the students to start understanding rhythm and using it for future lessons. 

Introduction

My name is Marissa Johnson. I am a senior in the Early Childhood Education major at Brigham Young University, with minors in Music and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages K-12. I am ecstatic at the opportunity which I have this semester to teach integrated music lessons in a 1st grade classroom at Spring Lake Elementary School in Payson, Utah.

I come from a musical family, and therefore have been involved in music for most of my life. I have played the piano for 14 years and started singing in choirs in 5th grade. Since coming to BYU, I have had the opportunity to further my musical skills through private lessons, singing in choirs, and working for the Elementary Music Education Office as an assistant. With my background in both early childhood education and music, teaching integrated music lessons is an incredible opportunity for me to combine two of my biggest passions.

This semester, I will be working with the 1st grade students to study music and English language arts. Through my project, we will discover the relationship between musical elements like rhythm and important language arts topics like syllables. I look forward to being able to interact with the children often, as well as to learn from both the classroom teacher and my mentor teacher.